ck
closed it, and hung about, undecided what to do.

A minute later he had made up his mind, for the cave in which the
smugglers' boats lay drawn up attracted him, and he was level with the
cottages and preparing to descend when it occurred to him that he had
better not go, for if Eben had been suspicious of his visit and ready to
think him guilty of giving information to the press-gang people and
Revenue men, it was quite possible that others there might be the same,
while doubtless the women who had lost son, husband, or father during
the past night would be in no pleasant temper to encounter.

So instead of descending, Aleck went on in the direction of the great
gap in the cliff where he had had so exciting an encounter with the
smuggler, intending to make for the shelf again so as to sit down and
watch the sloop and cutter, but only to find when he reached the place,
that the view in that direction was cut off by towering rocks.

Consequently he climbed back, went round the head of the deep combe, and
crept round to the other side, mounted to the top, and then stood
looking down into another of the great rifts in the coast-line, one
which had perpendicular sides, the haunt of wild fowl, going sheer down
to the water, which here came several hundred yards right into the land.

There were plenty of capital places here where a strong-headed person
could go and perch and excite no more notice than a sea-bird. They were
what ordinary inshore folk would have called "terribly dangerous," but
such an idea never occurred to Aleck, who selected one of the most
risky, in a spot where the vast wall where he stood was gashed by a
great crack, which allowed of a descent of some thirty feet to a broad
ledge littered by the preenings of the sea-birds, which seemed, though
none were present, to have made it their home.

It was a delightful spot for anyone who could climb to it without
growing giddy; but there was no going farther, for the angle of the
ledge was quite straight, and when the lad peered over he was looking
straight into the gurgling, foaming and fretting water a hundred feet
below.

"What a boat cove that would have made," he thought, "if there were not
so many sharp rocks rising from the bottom! I shouldn't like to try and
take my kittiwake in there, big as it is."

The gloomy place, with its black shadowy niches and caves at the surface
of the water, had a strange fascination for him. In fact, with its
sol